By John Catalinotto
November 24, 2025

Six members of the U.S. Congress, all Democrats, all veterans of the U.S. military or intelligence agencies, issued a video on Nov. 18 that resulted in President Donald Trump calling the video statements “seditious behavior, punishable by DEATH!” on his social media.

In the video they ended with the words “Don’t Give Up the Ship,” the six informed today’s members of the U.S. Armed Forces and the National Guard that they had not only the right but the duty to refuse to obey illegal or unconstitutional orders. They underlined this with regard to orders to fire their weapons at the people living in U.S. cities, as the president ordered them to do.

The six include Reps. Jason Crow, Colorado, Chris DeLuzio and Chrissy Houlahan, Pennsylvania, Maggie Goodlander, New Hampshire and Sens. Mark Kelly, Arizona and Elissa Slotkin, Michigan. Kelly was an astronaut, Slotkin, a CIA analyst and Crow, a former Army Ranger.

Implicit in a statement that troops had the duty to disobey is a warning. Troops who commit war crimes will be unable to use “I was only obeying orders” as a line of defense, should they face charges regarding those crimes.

The president responded immediately on social media by charging the Congress members with treason and threatening to have them executed. Trump’s barely coherent rants against them made it almost impossible for their fellow Democrats to avoid speaking out in their defense.

The video statement exposes the U.S. ruling class’s contradiction. It is caught in a sharp conflict regarding tactics. The Republican and Democratic parties both represent the interests of this wealthy ruling class. A small part of the Democratic Party establishment — the six Congress members who spent years of their lives as part of the imperialist state apparatus — will take action to stop the MAGA administration from creating a bigger disaster for that billionaire class.

What disaster? They see Trump as accelerating the decline of U.S. imperialism by turning the Armed Forces into a direct enemy of the U.S. population and losing any popular support it has.

To obey — or not

Since the troops were called into Los Angeles earlier this year to support roundups of migrants and anyone who seemed foreign to the mercenary Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) thugs, dissonance has spread in the National Guard. Individual National Guard members have refused to serve. And Slotkin said her office had received numerous calls from active duty troops and guards.

Whatever the motives of the six members of Congress, they have moved the question of soldiers obeying orders — or refusing to obey — to the front burner.

It is up to the workers’ movement, antiwar movement and anti-imperialist movement to look closely at this ruling-class conflict with the question: Is it possible to intervene to spread and organize resistance within the U.S. military so as to stop U.S. aggression abroad and stop the repression of migrants and their supporters within U.S. borders?

The right to disobey also applies to orders to fire on civilian boats in the Caribbean, as the U.S. warfleet has been doing in the waters near Venezuela since August. It is obvious that the MAGA regime has targeted Venezuela’s government. Any charge about “drug running” is purely a pretext for military action.

The more than 80 people killed by the U.S.’s water-borne death star have been murdered, without any proof of guilt. These killings are crimes, and those who carry out the crimes are criminals, even if those who give the orders are bigger criminals. Even one admiral, Alvin Holsey, resigned rather than lead the Caribbean fleet murdering civilians in motorboats.

Because the video of the six Congress members has been seen by millions of people, including troops, and even more so because an already unpopular and distrusted president has screamed a violent threat against the six. A conflict that was simmering has reached a boiling point.

Trump’s Homeland Security Adviser and chief fascist ideologue Steven Miller was the first to assess the video. He said on social media in his own exaggeration, “Democrat lawmakers are now openly calling for insurrection.”

Then White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt made the argument: “The sanctity of our military rests on the chain of command, and if that chain of command is broken, it can lead to people getting killed. It can lead to chaos … ”

Break the chain of command

None of the six Democrats explicitly called for breaking the chain of command, let alone calling for insurrection. What is true, however, is that if the rank-and-file troops in the military begin considering the legality of an order or discussing them with their peers, it raises the hope of a real break in the chain of command.

There are historical examples from the 1871 Paris Commune to the 1917 Russian Revolution to the 1974 Portuguese revolution when troops started to place their class interests ahead of their subservience to the rulers, and it became possible to organize resistance in the armed forces to orders to slaughter people. If it can be done, breaking the chain of command is exactly what must be done.

At the very least it will be easier now for anti-imperialists to reach U.S. troops and National Guard members with the message that they should – and even must – disobey orders. Activists should test different ways to do this, whether it be through using the internet or handing out leaflets.

Find the way. Offer support. Organize.

Perhaps the Trump administration will raise the stakes by sending troops into more cities to protect the mercenary ICE troops. The Guard members already hate to be there, as they informed Slotkin. And that was before the courageous high school youths of Charlotte, North Carolina, shut down their schools in solidarity with their migrant classmates.

If Trump and Miller call what the six did sedition and a call to insurrection, then it is up to anti-imperialist activists to make the most of it.

Catalinotto is author of  “Turn the Guns Around: Mutinies, Soldier Revolts and Revolutions.”